After graduating from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Robert Colton got a nice position as an associate with a New York City financial firm. It was a dream job for an Economics and Political Science major.
But something was missing.
“I was commuting, working crazy hours,” the Robbinsville native said. “For the first time in my life, hockey wasn’t a part of what I was doing. I really missed it.”
Thus, when a New Jersey state job opened for Colton as an Investment Analyst, he quickly contacted coaches Rob Broderick and Chris Barcless of the Mercer Chiefs, where Rob played youth hockey. He volunteered his services and was brought on board as an assistant coach four years ago.
In August, he became the second Colton to make news in the hockey world when Rob was named head coach of the Villanova University club hockey team. His hiring came one month after little brother Ross scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for Tampa Bay. When the news became official, Ross praised the hiring.
“I’m super-excited for this opportunity for Rob,” the second-year Lightning player said. “I know how much he loves the game and I know he is going to do big things for the Villanova hockey program. He knows the game better than anyone I know, so the players are lucky to have him as their leader.”
Villanova, a Division I club program, actually offered Colton the job two years ago. When COVID hit, the season was shut down last year. Once things re-opened, they interviewed Rob one more time and he jumped at the opportunity. And because he had the job two years ago, it dispels any myth that he is riding Ross’s NHL coattails.
“Exactly,” he said with a laugh. “We’re done with that.”
Colton, who turns 27 in December, grew up playing for the Chiefs before excelling at Princeton Day School. He played club hockey for Hobart and understands the intricacies of that level.
“I’m really excited and grateful for the opportunity,” Colton said. “It’s a very high level of club hockey and something that the school and the kids take very serious. There’s only a few NCAA Division III programs, so it’s a good alternative for kids that are looking to still play at a high level. I think this is a good next step to get some head coaching experience and see what happens from there.”
Rob will remain with the Chiefs for his fourth year overall and second working with the 16AAA National and 18AAA Premier teams. He feels fortunate that his fulltime job allows him to have nights and weekends free in order to be at games and most practices.”
“I’ll be doing a lot of running around during the week,” he said. “But I can’t get enough of being at the rink so it’s good.”
His Villanova duties will take precedent, of course, as he tries to revitalize a program that had a losing season in 2019-20 and no season in 20-21.
“It was sort of all over the place with how it was organized and the culture,” Colton said. “I’m really looking to come in there and tighten things up and establish culture and try to win some games this year and see what happens. Obviously at Mercer, we had some competitive teams, sent kids off to play some good junior hockey. I’m looking forward to developing these guys this year and sending them to the next level.”
In a round-about way, Colton can already include on his resume that he helped coach a player into the NHL. One who he is extremely close with, and who he shared a house with in Belmar this past summer.
“Rob always wanted to get into coaching, and was always coaching me when I was younger,” Ross said. “He still does to this day. Texting me or calling me after games, telling me things I can do differently. It was always huge for me because I look up to him and value his opinion so whatever he tells me I am always listening.”
High praise indeed from a guy who is now being coached by some of the great minds in hockey. But Rob has always been a thinking man’s player.
“I think, deep down, it’s always something I wanted to do,” he said. “Obviously I wasn’t as talented as Ross where I could take my playing career to any sort of level like that. But I always thought I knew the game pretty well.”
Colton is finding out quickly that knowing the game is not enough as a head coach at the college level, even if it’s club. He is now responsible for scheduling, reserving ice time at the Ice Cats home rink at Arcadia University, paying for the ice time, and scheduling trainers, EMT workers and referees.
“I gained hockey knowledge from guys I coached with, but nothing prepares you for that,” he said. “Normally I just show up at the rinks and I’m worried about systems, line combinations and things like that. So that’s a whole other thing.”
Colton can also recruit to a certain extent. He is unable to offer scholarships or any type of financial aid in exchange for players joining his team, but he can use his program as a means of advertising Villanova.
“I can go scout and reach out to them,” he said. “But they have to get in on their own merit. It’s really just an extra attraction to try and get someone to go to the school. Surprisingly, I’ve gotten a lot of inbound interest. We had about 60 kids come to tryouts. I didn’t recruit anybody because I just got the job. But I have kids in high school emailing me, wanting to learn more. It’s a mixture of kids that are already in the school, and me doing a little legwork.”
There is now a built-in pipeline between Villanova and the Chiefs, who always produce high talent. And Ross joked that “there will be a pipeline of Nova players to Tampa Bay, for sure.”
As funny as that sounds, Tampa actually became the first NHL team to put a college club player on its roster. Daniel Walcott, a teammate of Colton’s at Syracuse, was called up to the Lightning the same time as Ross and actually got into a game. Walcott played for Lindenwood University in suburban Chicago. He was quick to playfully text Ross about the virtues of club hockey when Rob was hired.
Walcott actually provides a good example for Colton’s players to follow.
“It’s a little bit of a cliché, but you never really know who’s watching,” he said. “You joke around, but you never know. Some kids develop at different paces. One good summer of working out could make a big difference.”
Colton, who is assisted by Hun School product Kyle Pettoni, will try and make a difference in his young players careers. They got off to a good start on Sept. 25, as Villanova won Rob’s head coaching debut with a 5-4, shootout win over The College of New Jersey.
“That definitely felt good,” Colton said. “I was more happy for the guys in our lockerroom. It was the first time they played a game in over 500 days. We only had four practices before that game, so I was pleased with the effort and result.”
He hopes to have more such efforts and results, and possibly use his new job as a springboard. Although he has a secure job with the state, Colton doesn’t discount the notion of making coaching a career somewhere down the line.
“I think Villanova is a nice step, this could potentially open some doors,” he said. “But right now I’m just focused on Villanova. I’m just gonna take it one season at the time and if the right opportunity came up it would be awesome.”
His brother feels that opportunity could well present itself.
“He has been great for the Chiefs and this is definitely a step up from that,” Ross said. “I think he is going to put himself on the map with this job and only go up from there. He was such a great player and has a great hockey mind, and he is definitely going to make a great head coach. I can’t wait to see what he does.”
